This invention relates to a storage device for panty hose and particularly to a storage device for panty hose that can be placed in a dresser drawer and which will hold a plurality of panty hose in a neat, orderly fashion so they can be removed one at a time as required.
Nearly all women wear some type of panty which may loosely be defined as a woman's or child's undergarment covering the lower trunk and made with a closed crotch. In addition, many women and young ladies wear hosiery which is a cloth leg covering that, in most instances, covers the foot and extends either above or below the woman's knee. Hosiery serves the purpose of keeping the woman's leg warm while providing a covering for her foot.
In order to prevent hosiery from succumbing to the effects of gravity and sliding down a woman's leg, some means must be provided for holding the hosiery in a upright fashion. Heretofore, this was accomplished by means of a garter belt or a panty girdle.
Now, many woman use panty hose which eliminates the need for a garter belt or panty girdle because the panty and hosiery are of one-piece construction.
Normally, a woman stores several panty hose in her dresser drawer and removes one each day as required. However, this has led to a problem in that, after being worn once, panty hose do not fold well and take up an excessive amount of space when stored in a dresser drawer.
Aside from being messy and not neat, a pile of clothing in a woman's dresser drawer which includes panty hose creates an appearance of sloppiness which to some women is offensive and distasteful. Further, various pairs of panty hose can become entangled, making it difficult to find a specific pair or to even know the number and type of hose contained in the drawer, and other items in the drawer, or the corners and edges of the drawer themselves, frequently snag the panty hose, causing them to run, which renders them useless.
Yet another difficulty is that dresser drawers are frequently deep and not well adapted to store items that cannot be neatly stacked.
Still further, some women find it desirable to maintain their panty hose in one specific location in neat piles within their dresser drawer separate and apart from the other articles of clothing maintained in that dresser drawer.
It is also recognized that any panty hose storage device, when being used in a dresser drawer, would of necessity have to occupy a substantial volume of space so that it would have a plurality of compartments with each compartment storing an individual panty hose. However, when it is desired to remove a panty hose storage device from a dresser drawer and store it in another location during periods of non-use, the panty hose storage device should occupy a minimum amount of space.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a storage device for storing panty hose in a neat, orderly fashion in a dresser drawer, which keeps to a minimum the space occupied by each pair of panty hose.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a panty hose storage device which, when not being used, will occupy a minimum amount of space. The flattening aspect of the design is also significant because it makes it easy to ship and to store at warehouses and retail locations.
Still a further object of the present invention is to provide a panty hose storage device which is easily used for storing panty hose and which is inexpensive in construction so that the cost of the same will not be an impediment to its widespread distribution and use.
Still a further object of the present invention is to provide a panty hose storage device which can be used in a woman's dresser drawer so as to store panty hose in a neat orderly fashion and yet can be made aesthetically pleasing.
Still a further object of the present invention is to compress each pair of panty hose so as to fit in as small a space as possible, to maximize the user's useful drawer space and to overcome the inherent tendency of the panty hose to expand to the available area.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a storage device for panty hose which can also be used to store hosiery, socks and other small articles of clothing.
The foregoing, as well as other objects, are accomplished by a panty hose storage device which consists of a first group of partition members. The partition members in the first group are identical to each other in configuration and are parallel to each other yet spaced apart from each other when positioned for storing panty hose. A second group of partition members, preferably but not necessarily equal in number to the first group of partition members, is provided and each partition member in the second group of partition members is spaced apart and parallel to the other partition members in the second set of partition members.
Each of the partition members in the first and second groups of partition members is made from a material that is self-sustaining--i.e., that is able to support its own weight. It has been found in practicing the present invention that a material suitable for constructing the partition members is conventional fabric which is stiffened by use of dilute fabric stiffener. Other means of stiffening may be used--e.g., sizing, plastic coating, etc.
The partition members in the first group of partition members each include a vertical cut in their uppermost portion with the number of vertical cuts corresponding to the number of partition members in the first and second groups of partition members. In a similar fashion, the second group of partition members include a vertical cut in the lowermost portion thereof, which vertical cuts for a particular partition member equal the number of partition members in the first and second groups of partition members.
The partition members are connected to each other by having the second group of partition members' vertical cuts extend over the vertical cuts of the partition members in the first group so that a portion of the partition members in the second group surrounds the partition members of the first group and vice versa. Thus, a number of flexible hinged joints are formed between the respective partition members in the first and second groups and glue is used to maintain the integrity of selected ones of the partition member joints. In practicing the present invention, other means might be used--i.e., stiffer fabric--precluding the need for glue.
By reason of interleaving the partition members as just described compartments are formed between respective portions of partition members and a panty hose can be stored in each such compartment in a neat and orderly fashion. In addition, a decoration may be placed on the fabric which makes the panty hose storage device attractive in appearance.
The panty hose storage device may be collapsed by pulling on opposite ends thereof so that when not used in a woman's dresser drawer it can be stored in an out of the way location without occupying substantial space.
Other objects of the invention will be apparent upon a review of the drawings and a review of the following specification.